Exploring the Impacts of a Nonprofit Seed Bank on Indigenous communities in the Southwestern United States

Abstract

Native seed and food loss is a challenge for thousands of Indigenous People in the United States. With the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, there has been evidence that food insecurity is more prevalent among Indigenous communities, but less information on how it has affected Native seeds. Specialists argue that top-down agricultural strategies are not as effective in some communities as community-based participatory action in framing agriculture policies. Development of sustainable foodways incorporating Native seeds have shown promise as a way of combatting food insecurity, promoting and developing agricultural knowledge for Indigenous people. While much is known about what causes food insecurity in Indigenous communities in the US, less research has been done on programs returning Native seeds to Indigenous people for food sovereignty. The seed bank Native Seeds/SEARCH runs programs that focus on protecting bio-diverse crops and the people who have developed and depend on them. Native Seeds/SEARCH is unique in that it works with Native seed but is not owned by an Indigenous Nation; therefore, members of the organization and members of Indigenous communities may conceptualize the programs' benefits and costs differently. I will examine this and also compare Native seed distribution and food sovereignty initiatives undertaken by Native Seeds/SEARCH during COVID 19 for their Indigenous stakeholders. My research proposes to fill gaps on seed sovereignty by looking at programs the seedbank offers, such as the Seed Stewardship and Rematriation program, Seed Backup program, the Native American Seed Request program, and the Bulk Seed Exchange program before and during the effects of COVID-19. I will be using participant observation, semi-structured interviews, Participatory Action research, and a decolonizing methodology as my methods. The proposed project aims to answer: How has Native Seeds/SEARCH learned from and respected the contributions of Indigenous People concerning projects on Native seed? How does Indigenous participation in Native Seeds/SEARCH programs work toward building food sovereignty for Indigenous communities? And finally, what are the measurable outcomes of Native Seeds/SEARCH’s Native seed action plans as viewed by both the organization and its Indigenous participants?